


Where idleness is gathered up

by ZoeBug



Series: Monthly Drabbles [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Drabble, Fluff, M/M, Summer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-27 09:00:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15021197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZoeBug/pseuds/ZoeBug
Summary: Jean swears and with a loud grunt he heaves himself up, managing a sideways tip of a belly flop onto the sloping sandpaper grate of the roof tiles.“About time you made it up here today, it’s nearly 5!” A high voice and a breathy flutter of laughter come from his left and despite his sore palms and sore arms, Jean can’t help but smile.It feels like he's liking this weird tradition of his neighborhood more and more every year.





	Where idleness is gathered up

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kearatheshadow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kearatheshadow/gifts).



> I gift a monthly drabble and this was the wonderful Keara's idea:  
>  _"My city/town is mostly old Victorian style houses converted into apartments, and the moment summer starts people have a potentially dangerous tradition of everyone climbing onto the roof to enjoy the sunshine and meet the neighbors. So maybe something with them on neighboring roofs, yelling/flirting."_
> 
> It was very fun to write something so wholesome, so please enjoy this short lil fluffy piece about these cute idiots flirting across rooftops!

_Where idleness is gathered up_

_A magic draught in summer’s cup_  

                                "A Summer Day" by Lucy Maud Montgomery 

 

* * *

 Once again, as he does every year during the first week of proper summer weather, Jean finds himself precariously hauling his body through his third floor bedroom window.

When he’d first moved in to the old Victorian-style house he rents with friends Reiner, Bertholdt, Connie, and Sasha in their third year of university, the neighborhood tradition had seemed utterly bizarre, a little redundant, and frankly slightly dangerous. But over the years he’s lived here, Jean has begun to feel that summer can’t quite properly begin until he’s made his clumsy way up onto the roof. 

The sill creaks beneath his gripping fingers as he heaves himself up. He always forgets between summers how tough it is to get himself over the jutting edge of the roof and how horrible the roof tiles drag at the palms of his hand.  

It’s nearing the end of the afternoon and he squints against the sun where it gleams sharply and directly into his eyes.

He swears and, with a loud grunt, heaves himself up, managing a sideways tip of a belly flop onto the sloping sandpaper of the roof tiles.

“About time you made it up here today, it’s nearly 5!” A high voice and a breathy flutter of laughter come from his left and despite his sore palms and sore arms, Jean can’t help but smile. It feels like he's liking this weird tradition of his neighborhood more and more every year

“Yeah, well, some of us have shit to do,” Jean grouses, rolling over and carefully inching his way across the angled roof toward the far side of the house where it nearly bumps up against the one next door.

Marco Bodt, his new neighbor, is lying easily on his stomach atop some kind of brightly colored towel or a picnic blanket, translucent yellow tumbler full of some cold drink sweating condensation onto the fabric beside him, his chin propped up on one hand as he grins over at Jean. 

The guy looks like something out of a shitty summer beer commercial with the wide sunglasses perched on his nose and the breezy short sleeved button down he’s gotten the top few buttons of undone. And the hems of his khaki shorts give way to tanned calves that he’s crossed at the knee and raised behind him like a teenage girl in an 80s film gossiping away on a landline phone.

 “I _did_ have stuff to do,” Marco replies, gesturing to the book in his other hand. He flips the book over and sets it upside down on the blanket in front of him, pages splayed open to mark his page. “It was a nice day so I decided I’d just read up here instead of in my living room.”

“Nerd,” Jean says because he can’t think of anything else to say. He rubs his raw palms against his ratty jeans. “You would be singin’ a different tune if you had this death slope of a roof.” Jean jerks his chin in Marco’s direction, indicating the comparatively flat area of the roof Marco’s managed to find to spread out on.

Marco laughs and his sunglasses slip down his nose at the motion of it. 

“I thought the whole point of this weird thing was to get to know your neighbors,” Marco says, humor still warming his voice.

“Yeah, and?” Jean asks, shifting a little against the uncomfortable tilt of his feet where he’s planted them to keep steady.

“Well, if your roof is crappy for hanging out on,” Marco says, and he ducks his head a little, removing his sunglasses from his face in the pause before he continues, “you could just come over to mine.”

Jean’s eyebrows shoot up in twin surprise and delight, the corner of his mouth tugging at the rest of it to get up, to get climbing—it was summer, after all.

“Yeah?”

In contrast to his earlier easy warmness, Marco ducks his head again and Jean’s not sure if the sun is still in his eyes or if Marco, under all those freckles and that expanse of dark skin, might just be blushing.

“I mean,” Marco manages, fiddling with the arms of the glasses in his hand, “only if you want to. I wouldn’t be the best host.” He looks around at his blanket and book and tumbler. “I didn’t bring much up here besides my book and some lemonade.”

“You got _lemonade_?” Jean asks excitedly, already inching closer to the edge of his roof, trying to judge the distance between the edge of his roof and Marco’s. It’s only a few feet, he could definitely jump it. “Why didn’t you just say so?”

At the edge of the roof, Jean steadies his footing. He takes a deep breath full of warm air and the smell of things beginning to blossom. He looks across the gap between their roofs at Marco—finds him grinning back at Jean like the first warm day of summer.

Jean leaps. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and kudos always appreciated!  
> You can also come say hi on [tumblr](http://zoe-bug.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/xiexiecaptain)


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